“This autobiographical novel, about Khalifa’s thirteen years in a Syrian prison, has already appeared in strong French translation from Stéphanie Dujols (La Coquille), and in 2016 will be issued in English, published by Interlink.”

What follows are a few books I hope and expect to read in 2013. Insha’allah* this list will grow. January The Silence and the Roar, Nihad Sirees, trans. Max Weiss – Pushkin Press (UK Release) Sirees’s book is a remarkable fictional… Read More ›

August is ending, beach season is coming to a close, and — huzzah — there’s a new blog in town: قصص أخرى (QISASUKHRA). It’s still rather spare, but promises “excerpts of previously untranslated Arabic literary works in English.” The first entry, titled “My Mother,” is a short story by Hamdi Abu Golayyel (his Thieves in Retirement and Dog With No Tail are both in English). There’s also new late-August fiction up on World Literature Today, Jadaliyya, and probably elsewhere:

I doubt that this list is comprehensive, particularly as concerns “Arab” diaspora literature. Please do post additions below. Also, the list is somewhat mixed & muddled where it concerns US, UK, Australian, and Egyptian release dates. In the first half… Read More ›

With new issues out from Jadaliyya and Banipal, it was time to poke around the Internet for new stories, poems, novel excerpts, memoir fragments and more in translation. NOVEL EXCERPTS From The City of Images (2011), by Luay Hamza Abbas, trans. Suneela Mubayi… Read More ›